


For the Sweet

by bottledspirits



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 10:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottledspirits/pseuds/bottledspirits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missed opportunity of sorts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Not my first fic, but my first Rumbelle. Do be kind to it.

It’s early afternoon in the diner, and while the place is never truly packed, Gold is nonetheless grateful that there is no bustling throng of people to get in his way as he shuffles through the door.

The bell above the door rings as he enters. It reminds him briefly of the bell in his own shop, but it is not a happy association. Rather, the sound of the bell stirs the gloom in his heart.

It is in this frame of mind that he locates Ruby. He crosses the room to stand at a close distance behind her, waiting as she collects the dishware from an empty table.

She’s absorbed in her work and does not notice him. Gold clears his throat politely. Ruby hears the sound, turns to see the man behind her, and gives a start. Gold smiles.

“Hello, dearie. Is your grandmother in?”

Ruby stares at him for a moment, either out of fascination or absent-mindedness, until she remembers herself.

“Oh, yeah, she’s -  _Granny_!” the girl calls out across the diner, and Gold winces.

Ruby walks toward the back room. Before she can get there, however, an old woman comes lumbering out, struggling with the effort to of moving her tired body and clearly disgruntled at being interrupted in her work.

“What is it? You know not to go shouting in the diner,” Granny says disapprovingly.

She turns to look a the girl and finds Gold instead. The woman looks frightened for a moment, but her expression is soon replaced by one of hostility.

“What are you doing here?” Granny asks the smirking man in front of her.

Gold puts on a look of mild surprise and waves his cane grandly in front of him.

“Can’t I stop by to visit my favorite tenants?”

But Granny is not fooled for a moment.

“If it’s money you’re worried about, you needn’t be. I’ll have it all at the end of the week, as always,” the woman says in a withering tone.

Gold’s face stretches in a look that is not quite kind.

“That’s all I wanted to hear,” he says smoothly. His voice is quiet, but it carries in the room because everyone has stopped talking to hear their conversation.

He can feel their eyes on him, all except Ruby, who has inexplicably chosen this moment to lean over the table of a customer whose face is obscured from Gold’s view by a newspaper. She appears to be listening to something the mysterious reader is saying, and suddenly the waitress stands back, a look of shock on her face.

Momentarily distracted by this little pantomime, Gold’s attention is drawn back to the woman before him when she cuts into his thoughts, asking, “Is that all?”

He almost sighs. What little fun he has in this town has been cut short by the shrewd tactics of this little old woman. After all, the only interaction he has with anyone is when he’s there to collect on a debt or, as seldom happens these days, to offer them a deal of dubious promise. The looks on their faces alone when he tells them what they can do for him in return makes it worth it.

It always did

, the old trickster thinks to himself.

Gold leans on his cane in an elegant way and gives the woman another enigmatic smile.

“Yes, I’m afraid so,” Gold replies.

“Then I suggest you be on your way,” Granny says. She doesn’t bother with any other farewell as she walks off again. She calls over her shoulder at her granddaughter, “I’ll be in the office!”

Gold is left standing in the middle of the diner. He glances around at the patrons, who have gone back to their food and conversation in a subdued manner. They’re all careful not to look his way.

With nothing of interest about and his business concluded, Gold shuffles toward the door. He sees Ruby busy with something behind the counter, apparently nonplussed by her grandmother’s sudden exit or his presence. It’s a little refreshing to see someone who doesn’t concern themselves with every movement of the people around them. He knows the people in this town are all too eager to immerse themselves in the personal dramas of their fellow residents, just as he can feel keenly the guarded stares of the people in the diner.

He turns his back on them and moves to leave.

“Just a minute!” Ruby calls after Gold.

He turns in time to see her place a bowl on the counter beside him. He casts a glance at it. The dainty glass dish contains a measure of strawberry ice cream, soft and round and pink and completely out of place in front of him. Gold turns his eyes on Ruby.

“That‘s kind of you dearie,” Gold says with a wan smile, “but I’m not one for sweets.”

The waitress leans on the counter, taking the chance to show a bit of cleavage to the room, and he suspects the gesture is just as much for her own benefit as anyone else‘s.

“Oh, it’s not me,” Ruby says. She grins, showing rows of pearly white teeth between red lips. It makes her look vaguely predatory. “You have an admirer.”

Gold shoots the girl a questioning look, but she simply grins back, clearly enjoying his confusion and the oddity of the situation. He looks at the bowl, as if willing it to reveal its secrets. The wheels in his brain begin to spin as he ponders this new development.

Who in hell would order ice cream for the town dragon? He briefly entertains the notion that someone in this town doesn’t hate him entirely, but it’s too absurd to hold up. It must be some kind of joke.

“All the same, dearie, I’m afraid I’ll pass,” he says. He shuffles his cane in his hand and moves toward the door. No one takes any notice of him as he opens it, and the little bell rings out merrily over his head as he steps outside.

As he closes the door behind him, however, he hears Ruby call sadly, “Poor girl. This’ll break her heart.”

He pauses. The expression on his face is unreadable. He stands in the doorway for just a moment, his mind involuntarily fixing itself on the one subject he tries to avoid and, day after day, finds himself mulling over painfully.

Is there anyone left who would break their heart over him?

He closes the door with great care, as if afraid to touch it, and walks away.

The sound of the bell is all that marks his exit.


End file.
